In the later part of November 2018, Apple got rid of the Tumblr app from their store because of the existence of child porn material. This action immediately had a big impact on the platform, which quickly declared that it will prohibit all NSFW content by December 17, 2018.

This sudden decision was quite a shock for Tumblr’s users, all of whom had become familiar with the freedom of posting sexually explicit content on the platform.

Loads of several fandoms and communities are suffering from the effects of this content restriction. For one, Tumblr’s algorithm is flagging non-NSFW posts such as innocent art. Then there are some individuals saying that Tumblr is also removing the feature of custom themes, which is a huge deal for almost all of the Tumblr members who make use of the platform as a way to express their creativity, be it in their content or in the very theme/layout of their blogs.

Artists who used to post their art on Tumblr are now switching to other platforms. I’ve personally talked to a couple of artists who wanted to move their original character art to Toyhouse because of Tumblr’s apparent self-destruction.

Although sad, it’s what Tumblr thinks is the right thing to do and all we can do right now is either to bear with it and continue using the platform or to move on to other services.